Old Square is a public square and road junction in the Core area of Birmingham City Centre, England.
Old Square is a public square and road junction in the Core area of Birmingham City Centre, England.
The site of the square was formerly occupied the Priory of St Thomas of Canterbury, with The Minories, Upper Priory and Lower Priory being the original entrance roads to the hospital. The land is believed to have once been the highest point in Birmingham city centre leading to the construction of the priory. In 1536, the Priory was dissolved and the structures on site were demolished in 1547.
The site remained as ruins for 150 years until it was purchased by John Pemberton in 1697. He further levelled the land for construction work to create his Priory estate.
The square dates from 1713 when it was recorded as having 16 uniform two-storied houses with five-bayed fronts having angle pilasters, pedimented doorways, and dormer windows. It was created as the centrepiece to John Pemberton's Priory Estate. It was designed by William Westley who produced a print of the square's layout in 1732. From old conveyances, it is recorded that 20s. per yard frontage was paid for the site of some of the houses in the square and up to 40s. in Bull Street; the back plots, including the Friends' burial ground (once gardens to the front houses) being valued at 1s. to 2s. per yard. One of the corner houses, originally called "the Angle House", was popular in that it was sold in 1791 for £420, increasing to £970 in 1805. In 1843 the price increased £1,330 and in 1853, £2,515.
The centre of the square itself was closed off with iron railings with several pedestrian paths. Over time it became neglected and in 1832 it was the scene of a public demonstration. The stones there were used as missiles by the crowd during the parliamentary elections of that year.
The trees and railings were removed during 1836 and 1837 as a result of many accidents occurring there due to the roadways being narrow and dangerous. Following this, the Birmingham Street Commissioners widened the roads.
The square was to suffer a major demolition programme in 1882 to make way for the construction of Corporation Street. Buildings that were constructed as a result were of grand architecture, one of which was the Grand Theatre to the south of the square. Lewis's Department store was constructed at the western end to replace Berlin House and to build over the Minories in 1885 following personal persuasion from Joseph Chamberlain.
During the Victorian era, the square became a tram junction for trams running along Corporation Street and those coming from Upper Priory.
During World War II, a hole was dug next to Lewis's Department Store and above it, a bomb shelter was built. The shelter did not suffer any damage however nearby areas along Corporation Street did suffer direct hits. [1]
The square was to become subject to more development during the post-war years when the land leases given to the builders of Corporation Street during the 1880s expired. This resulted in the demolition of many Victorian buildings. As one major part of the development of Old Square, Lower Priory to the south was converted into the Priory Queensway, which required the road to be widened and elevated. To do this, the Grand Theatre was demolished and an underground car park was constructed beneath. The Priory Queensway made it possible for the construction of Priory Square by Sir Frederick Gibberd in the southwestern corner of the square. In the southeast, another development to complement the new shopping centre was constructed. Pedestrians were relegated to subterranean subways, although these converged in an uncovered area, but below road level.
In the early 2000s, Old Square was significantly redeveloped, to raise pedestrian routes through the square to the surface. As part of the development, the Priory Queensway was reconstructed as a sloping road following the gradient of the Birmingham city ridge as a result of the demolition of Masshouse Circus. In 2006, refurbishment work on Cannon House to the northeast of the square commenced to convert it into Grade A office space. The development by Nurton Developments, who acquired the building in June 2004, also transformed the exterior.
Proposed future work to the square includes the redevelopment of Priory Square to create Martineau Galleries by the Birmingham Alliance.
In the centre of Old Square is a memorial dedicated to Tony Hancock, who was born in the Hall Green area of the city. The memorial, by Bruce Williams, was unveiled by Sir Harry Secombe on 13 May 1996. The memorial was originally intended to be placed on New Street but a temporary site on the Corporation Street edge of the square was found (at the time, it stood opposite a Blood Donor clinic, in a nod to Hancock's well-known sketch). The statue was relocated to the centre of Old Square after it was unveiled. An earlier public sculpture in Old Square is a mural named Old Square sculpted by Kenneth Budd in 1967. The mural was commissioned by the Public Works Department of Birmingham City Council and was paid for from the Capital Account. It was unveiled on 21 April 1967 by Alderman C.V. Simpson, chairman of the Public Works Department. The mural depicts the history of Old Square from the priory onwards. [2]
The Bull Ring is a major shopping area in central Birmingham England, and has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when its market was first held. Two shopping centres have been built in the area; in the 1960s, and then in 2003; the latter is styled as one word, Bullring. When coupled with Grand Central it forms the United Kingdom's largest city centre based shopping centre, styled as Bullring & Grand Central.
Aldgate was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London.
Birmingham Central Library was the main public library in Birmingham, England, from 1974 until 2013, replacing a library opened in 1865 and rebuilt in 1882. For a time the largest non-national library in Europe, it closed on 29 June 2013 and was replaced by the Library of Birmingham. The building was demolished in 2016, after 41 years, as part of the redevelopment of Paradise Circus by Argent Group. Designed by architect John Madin in the brutalist style, the library was part of an ambitious development project by Birmingham City Council to create a civic centre on its new Inner Ring Road system; however, for economic reasons significant parts of the master plan were not completed, and quality was reduced on materials as an economic measure. Two previous libraries occupied the adjacent site before Madin's library opened in 1974. The previous library, designed by John Henry Chamberlain, opened in 1883 and featured a tall clerestoried reading room. It was demolished in 1974 after the new library had opened.
The Big City Plan is a major development plan for the city centre of Birmingham, England.
McLaren is a 69-metre, 21 storey tall office building in Birmingham, England. It was designed by Paul Bonham Associates and built in 1972. It is situated by the Masshouse and Martineau Galleries redevelopment sites. The entrance is on Priory Queensway.
The Jewellery Quarter is an area of central Birmingham, England, in the north-western area of Birmingham City Centre, with a population of 19,000 in a 1.07-square-kilometre (264-acre) area.
Queensway is the name of a number of roads in central Birmingham, England, but most often refers to the Queensway tunnel, part of the A38. Queensway is the suffix of several other roads and circuses, such as Smallbrook Queensway and Colmore Circus Queensway; all of which were once part of the historic A4400 Inner Ring Road, often called collectively the Queensway.
Masshouse is a development site in the Eastside area of Birmingham, England. Its name derives from a Roman Catholic Church built in 1687. Buildings were cleared to make way for the inner city ring road and car parking in the 1960s. Birmingham City Council wished to expand the city centre eastwards and an elevated road junction, Masshouse Circus was demolished in 2002 to facilitate redevelopment.
Corporation Street is a main shopping street in Birmingham city centre, England. Though it has a distinct southern terminus – the junction of New Street and Stephenson Place, adjacent to the entrance of New Street station – the location of its northern terminus is debatable.
Eastside is a district of Birmingham City Centre, England that is undergoing a major redevelopment project. The overall cost when completed is expected to be £6–8 billion over ten years which will result in the creation of 12,000 jobs. 8,000 jobs are expected to be created during the construction period. It is part of the larger Big City Plan project.
Martineau Galleries is a proposed mixed-use development for Birmingham, England which was shelved in 2009 but re-approved in 2020. It was to connect the Eastside to the city centre core, a major retail area.
Charing Cross is a major road junction and area within the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated north of the River Clyde at the intersection of Sauchiehall Street, St George's Road, Woodlands Road, North Street and Newton Street, as well as being at a major interchange of the M8 motorway. Charing Cross marks the notional boundary between the City Centre and the West End of the city.
Martineau Place is a shopping centre located in the city centre of Birmingham, England. It contains a mixture of shops and restaurants, with the emphasis on food and drink which is located on the roofs of the shops. Retailers include Sainsbury's, Deichmann, Boots, Argos and Poundland, the upper levels of the centre include a 168-room hotel.
This article is intended to show a timeline of events in the History of Birmingham, England, with a particular focus on the events, people or places that are covered in Wikipedia articles.
Birmingham city centre, also known as Central Birmingham, is the central business district of Birmingham, England. The area was historically in Warwickshire. Following the removal of the Inner Ring Road, the city centre is now defined as being the area within the Middle Ring Road. The city centre is undergoing massive redevelopment with the Big City Plan, which means there are now nine emerging districts and the city centre is approximately five times bigger.
Paradise, formerly named Paradise Circus, is the name given to an area of approximately 7 hectares in Birmingham city centre between Chamberlain and Centenary Squares. The area has been part of the civic centre of Birmingham, England since the 19th century when it contained buildings such as the Town Hall, Mason Science College, Birmingham and Midland Institute buildings and Central Library. The site was redeveloped from 1960 to 1975 into the present Paradise Circus based within a roundabout on the Inner Ring Road system containing a new Central Library and School of Music. From 2015, Argent Group will redevelop the area into new mixed use buildings and public squares.
Henry William Collins and Joyce Millicent Pallot were two artists who lived and worked together for over 60 years. They are best known for their work on a number of large-scale public concrete murals during the 1960s and 1970s, many of which remain around the UK today. Their mural work often included elements relating to the cultural and industrial heritage of the location they were sited and is part of a tradition of muralists that includes William Mitchell and Kenneth Budd amongst others. Henry Collins and Joyce Pallot were both prominent members of the Colchester Art Society and exhibited together on a number of occasions.
Ringway Centre is a Grade B locally listed building located on Smallbrook Queensway in the city centre of Birmingham, England. The six-storey, 230 metres (750 ft) long building was designed by architect James Roberts as part of the Inner Ring Road scheme in the 1950s and is notable for its gentle sweeping curved frontal elevation.
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